BP offshore wind JV backs out of US project

The 2.6GW Beacon Wind project had been planned for 17 nautical miles southwest off Nantucket between Cape Cod and Long Island, New York, with a total area of 128,000 acres.

The JERA Nex BP project has now been abandoned, a spokesman for BP confirmed, although at the time of writing the joint venture had not responded to requests for comment.

The pull-out is another example of reticence in US offshore wind largely due to the Trump administration’s well-known aversion to offshore wind.

The JERA Nex BP joint venture was set up from BP’s offshore wind sector and JERA, itself a joint venture between Japanese energy companies Tokyo Electric Power and Chubu Electric Power.

First announced in December 2024, the JERA Nex BP already has 19 projects on the go, including seven in operation, nine in development, and one in early development, making a total of 13GW. They are in Europe, Japan, Taiwan and Australia.

Media reports cited the joint venture as saying it believed the US had long-term potential for offshore wind, ‘but in the present environment, we see no viable path to the development of our Beacon Wind project and have concluded that we cannot continue our investment in the market’.

The lease, however, would be maintained until ‘a more favourable moment’, reports said.